I really began to get my head around this issue when I understood a key error that TRAs/captured society was making.
Trans identified adults (historically mainly males who wished to appear like women) often report knowing they were really the opposite sex as a child, a feeling which persisted into adulthood and caused them to transition.
People assume that this means children with cross sex identification, or even just kids who are outside stereotypes of what girls and boys like, would grow up to be trans. And so to be compassionate and accepting we should usher them into this identity and medically transition them ASAP.
But they have got that wrong. There have been studies that have followed children who feel and act this way without affirming them or transitioning them. Only a small minority persistently identify as trans. The majority are same-sex attracted and the rest are just not stereotypical of their sex (like a flamboyant or sensitive man).
So socially or even medically transitioning these children is wrong, we ought to wait until they are adults and let them decide how to live their lives then.
What's more, there has been a humongous increase in the numbers of adolescent girls with no history of gender issues, suddenly identifying as trans after others in their friend groups have, or after being immersed in gender ideology through social media. This group is often referred to as having ROGD (rapid onset gender dysphoria).
It's thought that:
autistic girls (rigid thinking about stereotypes, feeling different, struggling to relate socially with their female peers),
lesbians and bisexual girls (struggling with crushes on heterosexual friends, lesbophobia, feeling less conforming to feminine ideals, interests similar to boys) and
girls suffering from trauma (feeling dissociated from their body, wanting to be less vulnerable, not wanting sexual attention from men/boys, trying to find acceptance and community)
are particularly vulnerable to the zeitgeist that offers up transition as a magical answer to their problems.
But any gender non-conformity is getting pattern matched by our pattern seeking brains as being "oh, possibly they are trans" when in previous decades they would have been just part of the spectrum of girlhood, perhaps called tomboys or butch, but not expected to take hormones or surgery to become more Man-like.
A lot of the most outspoken voices criticising gender ideology are from grown women who have been non-conforming teen girls uncomfortable with puberty, homophobia and societies sexist expectations of us and yet are women at peace with our bodies and often mums and grandmas who appreciate what our female bodies have allowed us, even whilst still battling sexism/homophobia etc.
Further reading
Trans - Helen Joyce
Time to Think - Hannah Barnes
Irreversible Damage - Abigail Shrier
Personally I have listening to the stories of detransitioners to be important to understanding how young people fall come to these ideas about themselves, how they come out of it and the harm caused by the current affirmation only culture, especially in "healthcare" - the lack of care about the health of these young people is striking.
Benjamin Boyce has a YouTube channel which has long form conversations with detransitioners.
Jordan Peterson has a famous interview with Chloe Cole who also speaks with other detransitioners on her own YouTube channel.
I'm sure there are others.
Desist
Children who think of themselves as the opposite sex but grow out of it.
Detransitioners: people who identified as trans, started down the transition pathway, often having hormones and/or surgery before realising it wasn't the right path for them. They cease to identify as the opposite sex but have to live with the irreversible consequences of transition.
Chloe Cole interviewed by Jordan Peterson